Isaiah 63:10 and 14 unveil that the Spirit who works in so many ways is also the grieving Spirit and the rest-giving Spirit. When we grieve Him, He grieves for us. He is the One who also gives us rest. The grieving One is the rest-giving One. We may grieve the Spirit, and the Spirit grieves for us. Then we do not have rest. Eventually, once we confess our failure to the Lord and repent, the grieving Spirit becomes the rest-giving Spirit.
The book of Ezekiel strongly reveals that the Spirit is moving in God’s move (1:12, 20; 2:2; 3:12, 14, 24; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 37:1; 43:5). In Ezekiel 1 there is a vision of the four living creatures with the four wheels. This means that God is moving among His creatures. Ezekiel 1:12 says, “And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.” Verse 20 says, “Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.” Ezekiel 1 gives us a vision of how God is moving on this earth. In this move of God, the Spirit moves. For more fellowship concerning this, I would encourage you to read the book entitled The Visions of Ezekiel.
When we go out to visit people for the preaching of the gospel, we have to realize that the Spirit motivated and moved us to do this. The Spirit moves us, and then we move. In our going is the moving Spirit. The Spirit is moving in our move. When we knock on doors for the preaching of the gospel, the Spirit is there. Within our move to preach the gospel, there is an inner move. The outer move is ours, and the inner move is the Spirit’s.
The Spirit causes man to keep God’s statutes and ordinances (Ezek. 36:27). The law has only ten commandments. Besides these ten commandments, Exodus gives us a lot of subordinate items. Statutes and ordinances are subordinate items of the law. Statutes tell us not to do certain things. Ordinances are statutes which are given with a judgment or punishment if we disobey them. Exodus 20 gives us the law, and chapters twenty-one through twenty-three give us the supplementary items of the law, the statutes and ordinances. We have no power to keep God’s statutes and ordinances. The Spirit gives us the strength and causes us to keep them.
Ezekiel 37:14 reveals that the Spirit enlivens the dead. The Spirit comes to enliven all the dead bones, so the Spirit is the enlivening Spirit.
The Spirit gives people power, judgment, and might. Micah 3:8 says, “But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.” Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” It is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of Jehovah that we can perform something for Him.
The Spirit of God also has the function of abiding among God’s people (Hag. 2:5). He abides with us. We should not think that His abiding with us does not require strength. Could we stay with someone moment by moment all the time? This would be exhausting. We need to be alone. We need some privacy. But the abiding Spirit always abides with His people. Abiding is an ability and a function. The abiding Spirit never leaves us.
Zechariah 12:10 shows that the Spirit is the grace-giving and supplicating Spirit. At the time of the Lord’s coming back, the Spirit will be grace to the repenting Israel so that they will be able to supplicate, to pray, to petition God by the Spirit. That outpouring of the Spirit talked about in Zechariah 12:10 will be the Spirit as the latter rain.
Thank the Lord for the functions of the Spirit in the Old Testament. In His gracious action, God acts as the Spirit.